The present invention relates to the field of email distribution and, more particularly, to controlling email propagation within a social network utilizing proximity restrictions.
Electronic mail (email) has become an integral part of communications for many industries and enterprises. As such, email content protection is often the center of much concern within organizations. One aspect of content protection that continues to plague email users is control over which parties can receive an email once it is sent by a sender. For example, a recipient of an email can forward the email to any party which they choose. That is, the sender loses control over the email once it is communicated to recipients. As such, this can be a compromise of email conveyed content and/or security for companies and individuals. For example, an employee can accidentally forward a sensitive company email to a family member. Further, many integrity issues for individuals have arisen as a result of this problem.
These problems are further compounded when emails are communicated within a social network. In a social network, each member of the social network can be potentially connected to many other members. Currently, email solutions do not consider relationships between a sender and a recipient when conveying an email to a recipient. In many instances, email is intended for a select group of individuals which are often the recipients within the email sender's social network. Frequently, individuals outside the sender's social network are not aware of secure communication occurring within the social network. For instance, when a party not within the same social network receives an email, information within the email can often pose potential security problems for the sender and individuals within the social network. As such, it would be beneficial if email distribution can be controlled within a social network after it is sent.